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"Stephens said workers fired for failing a private employer’s drug test often spend unemployment checks on drugs."
Worker fired for 'cause' are not eligible for unemployment. If the employer has a drug policy that is properly administered and employees are made aware of the policy, then the employee would be at fault for his discharge and not eligible.

No one is going to allow him or herself to be drug tested when they know it will come back positive.

Our tax dollars pay for people's unemployment. Therefore the public has a right to know whether their hard earned money is going to either help someone pay the rent this week or go to the dealer down the street for a bag of pot.

If you think that weed is capable of ruining lives and is our biggest drug problem with low income homes, you must be on something stronger...like crack. Cannabis is less dangerous than any substance classified as a drug, including the legal ones (they must be ok, they are legal, right?) The problem is that the hard drugs don't stay in your system for more than 48 hrs because your body sees them as a poison and tries to rid itself ASAP. You actually have cannabinoid receptors in your brain made to receive and react to cannabis. Cannabis can stay in your system (depending on your personal characteristics) for 30 - 45 days because your body stores it in your fat cells. If your body viewed cannabis as a poison, it would flush it out as it does with EVERY other main stream intoxicant.

"Consciously storing it" - It isn't consciously storing it, but your body does not reject it and rid itself as quickly as possible. Doc, can you tell me why the human brain would have receptors exclusively designated for cannabinoids? Surely, you can't dismiss that as doper nonsense.

Cannabinoids are in every living animal on the planet above Hydra and Mollusks.
Through breast feeding, mothers give their babies shots of cannabinoids to encourage eating. Having been fed by the umbilical cord, babies do not have an urge to eat.

Cannabinoids have been proven to reverse the effects of free radicals.

Cannabinoids have been proven to kill brain tumor cells and protect and heal all other brain cells.

Check out the National Cancer Institute's webpage for pre-clinical and clinical studies for more info!

I'm sorry, but I do not submit to the notion that legal = good and illegal = bad. Entrenched industries and their "influence" have outlawed a PLANT that would endanger their profits. I'm no tin foil hat wearing conspiracy theorist either. Just read about Harry J. Andslinger for more info.

mess we have. It will have be done right though. They need to make it the hair test. Since thats the only test that cant be altered. As for Fort where the hell has this clown been? Does he know that all companies drug test? So he is saying everyone that has been fired for drugs should sue for invasion of privacy and sue the state for giving companies tax breaks for a drug free environment? Some body drug test him I think hes HIGH!!!

I would presume that you contend that the presence of a specific receptor does mean that it must be used or that there is a current purpose for it? Well, again, you would be wrong...
"Cannabinoid receptors are activated by cannabinoids, generated naturally inside the body (endocannabinoids) or introduced into the body as cannabis or a related synthetic compound."

"There are currently two known subtypes, termed CB1 and CB2.[5][6] The CB1 receptor is expressed mainly in the brain (central nervous system, CNS), but also in the lungs, liver and kidneys. The CB2 receptor is mainly expressed in the immune system and in hematopoietic cells.[7] Mounting evidence suggests that there are novel cannabinoid receptors[8] that is, non-CB1 and non-CB2, which are expressed in endothelial cells and in the CNS. In 2007, the binding of several cannabinoids to a G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) in the brain was described.[9]"

I can't refute anything you are saying because I have not personally researched it in depth. Over the years I have heard how harmless and wonderful this drug is However, the fact remains that even for all the wonders that cannabis maybe does for us, it is still a crime to use, sell it or have in your possession. If it ever becomes legal we can revisit this debate over whether people on unemployment should be allowed to purchase this "wonder drug".

But Sensetalk you make a good argument but I would like to hear an argument refuting yours and I am sure there are many. There is one thing I am curious about. "What does it do to your lungs?" If cigarettes cause so much damage to your lungs, wouldn't smoking pot on a regular basis be worse?

from US taxpayers pays for the CIA's endless poppy fields in Afghanistan and pays US Marines to guard them--meaning the Marines are ordered to risk their lives for the CIA's heroin lords. Then our tax money pays indigent farmers (the former owners of the poppy fields before the CIA arrived ten years ago and expropriated them,) to harvest the chalky ooze from the poppies, press it into sticky grayish 'bricks,' and load it, first on wood pallets, then onto US government planes. From there it is transported to the CIA's network of heroin-processing labs, also staffed and paid for with tax money, these days mostly in Corsica, Sardinia, the south of France, and Colombia.Coco leaves are processed mostly in Latin American CIA labs. The taxpayer-owned fleets of government planes then import the refined heroin and cocaine to various parts of the West, where it is sold on the streets at gargantuan prices. The exact same setup exists in the so-called Golden Triangle in south Asia, only the CIA has been operating there since 1949, and a private, mercenary army, paid with US tax money, guards the poppy fields there. When not running heroin and coke, the same planes transport torture victims around from one CIA 'secret prison' to another. A CIA heroin/torture plane crashed in Mexico a few years ago ( Dec. 12 2007.) Four tons of fresh, processed cocaine were found aboard it. (Updated, corrected as to cargo of downed plane in Yucatan.)

Absolutely, smoking, of any kind does damage to your lungs. The states that have legalized medicinal uses of cannabis also offer cannabis in edible form (by use of making a butter compound) where the taste is indistinguishable and the negative effects of smoking are eliminated. Also, vaporizing, instead of smoking, is become more common place, especially with medicinal users. Vaporizing involves heating the cannabis to a temperature below the threshold for burning, therefore reducing the carcinogens and negative aspects of smoking greatly. If grown with only natural fertilizers and organic materials, cannabis is far less dangerous than cigarettes. Cigarette smoke contains over 4,000 chemicals, including 43 known cancer-causing (carcinogenic) compounds and 400 other toxins. These include nicotine, tar, and carbon monoxide, as well as formaldehyde, ammonia, hydrogen cyanide, arsenic, and DDT.

And I have not even touched on the implications of the farmers in the US being able to grow hemp (the male plant, with THC levels so low that you could not feel a high on any consumable amount). Hemp is a far superior raw material than cotton for many reasons.

The Big Dude in Charge ("God") made cannabis grow. Man makes beer, ciggies, and cocaine. I know who I would trust more... I've seen those shows that explain how some of the 'legal' drugs are made. As far as I know, cannabis is made by dropping a seed in the ground, watering, and letting nature take it's course.

and rock and roll. However, it is illegal as Belle points out- unless you live in California or Colorado and can get a doctor in Bangladesh to give you a prescription online. I gave up drinking over 15 years ago. Gave up pot back in the early 70s after my stint in southeast asia. I miss the pot, but preferred employment. When you hit your 60s, pot should be legal. Give everyone something to look forward to and a way to spend all that social security income. And there's the glaucoma thing. And Pink Floyd.

Yeah, the whole, 'it's illegal' thing makes it not worthwhile... Otherwise I'd be employing the use of my green thumb, to supplement my retirement and SS checks in a few years... Maybe by then, the government will understand that they aren't doing the nation or it's people any good by making one mood-altering plant (cannabis) illegal, while allowing another mood-altering plant (tobacco) to be sold. Treat it like alcohol/tobacco. Set limits to who can sell it, who it can be sold to, tax the heck out of it, and let everyone in jail for mere possession/manufacturing go. Make it illegal to operate heavy machinery under the influence, and find more important things to worry about. But until then.... I'm partial to Margarita's... Maybe when I retire, I'll move to the west coast..

so your saying that all the employers who drug test are envading my privacy i dont think so safe work and lower workers comp if you want a good job that pays a little more money [filtered word] clean i say [filtered word] them all .

Digitalnoise,
Get your facts straight. The reason no one tested positive in Florida is because all of those on drugs refused the test. The welfare rolls/applications dropped significantly.
Hallelujah for Florida and let's hope Georgia, and every other state that spends taxpayer money on welfare, unemployment benefits and when elected officials, does the same. I sick of my money being confiscated by the government in taxes and spent on scum bags that are on drugs.

Let go into their homes and make sure they are not buying alcohol. Let's go into their homes and make sure they do not have steak in the fridge. Let's go into their homes and makes sure they have no cable. Let's go into their homes and make sure they are not buying name brand products. Let's make sure they are not wasting any of the money that their employer paid into the system based on the employees work.

We kid when we want government out of our lives. Obviously, we want them in the poors lives, the unemployed lives, and the gays lives. Not OUR lives, just them other people's!!

Doc Martin, thank you for refuting the argument that Sensetalk posted yesterday. I don't understand brain receptors and why pot stays in your body for 30 plus days etc. I have never researched the benefits of pot but can not believe it can actually be good for you. If so, doctors all over the US would be lobbying for it to be legalized all over and prescribing it for every disease that it supposedly is supposed to help.

If you read any of the posts yesterday I had a back and forth with Sensetalk who heralded the benefits of marijuana and although I disagreed, he did make a good argument. Although I know that marijuana is legal in California and Colorado for medicinal purposes I have never believed that anything good can come from legalizing it. Of course all of the things you mentioned above are bad for you but aside from alcohol none of them are mind altering. Alcohol is legal unless you are also driving. I'd hate to think that drunk AND stoned drivers are on the road tonight but I'm not too afraid of driving next to someone who is obese and just came from Burger King.

Yes, obesity is a terrible epidemic in this country and yes it does cost the taxpayers tons of money. Obesity along with all of the health problems such as high blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes are also a drain on health insurers. Everyone pays there too. That is one of the reason health insurance premiums are so high.

But we live in a free country and as long as an activity is not illegal we can partake in said activity as much as we want. This is an imperfect world occupied by imperfect people. There is no easy solution or someone smarter than you and I would have thought of it by now.

People are responsible for their own lives and health. Even if laws were put in place to limit "bad for you" activities they would find a way to do it anyway. After all we will always have people abusing alcohol, illegal and legal drugs, gambling, porn/sex and the list goes on.

if an overweight person comes into the hospital without means to pay they would never be allowed to do a body mass test before treating him/her because that would be discrimination. Can you imagine the lawsuits?